


Best of the Achaeans

by stepantrofimovic



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology, The Iliad - Homer
Genre: Briseis ships it, Drabble, International Fanworks Day 2015, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-13 01:10:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3362195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stepantrofimovic/pseuds/stepantrofimovic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He loves him."</p><p>"Of course. Patroklos and Akhilleus are very close."</p><p>A conversation between Briseis and another prisoner in the Greek camp.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So. This is my contribution to the International Fanworks Day drabble challenge. The [prompt](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/2489) was "What does your favorite character—or your favorite pairing—get fannish over?" Of course, I couldn't help but pick the work that fascinates me the most in my field of studies, i.e. the Iliad.

“He loves him.”

Iphis looks at her, befuddled. “Of course. Patroklos and Akhilleus are very close.”

“No. Sorry. I mean, like husband loves wife.” Iphis' confused expression doesn't change. “Like lovers. Am I using the wrong words?” Briseis' Greek is passable, but still shaky. She hasn't been here for long.

Iphis is usually kind to her when she slips. This time, however, her answer's harsh. “These things don't happen here. Perhaps between you barbarians, but not between our _aristoi_.” She's Greek, a prisoner from Skyros, and she likes to remind Briseis of that, sometimes.

Briseis smiles, knowingly. _She can't see._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Aristoi_ (ἄριστοι) is Greek for "best" (plural). In the Iliad, it's the specific designation for epic heroes, with their own honor code -- one that didn't include homosexual relationship, even though the Patroclus/Achilles subtext in the Iliad is, to my fannish eyes, undisputable (and a number of Greek writers after Homer picked up on that as well).
> 
> In case anyone was wondering, Iphis is not an OC. She's the Greek prisoner from Skyros with whom Achilles orders Patroclus to lie in Iliad 9.666-668.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I ended up writing two drabbles for IFW rather than just one as expected. There are reasons, beside the fact that I'm a dirty cheating cheater, of course. The thing is, there's another side to the Achilles/Patroclus relationship, one that's very different from the promise of young love which Briseis saw in the previous chapter. And there's another side to fannish experience as well: the bittersweet pleasure of sharing your favorite characters' suffering. This is what I tried to capture here.
> 
> Also, the scene of the _threnos_ over Patroclus' body in the Iliad (book 19.282-302) is just breathtaking. For those who are not acquainted with Homer's text, what happens is basically that the captive women in the Greek camp sing a lament over Patroclus' body, and at the same time they use it as a disguise to weep for their own dead (something they obviously weren't allowed to do in their daily life). Briseis' position is especially fascinating, because she had a bond of sorts with Patroclus, so she has to weep both for him and for her own family, who was killed by Achilles.

When she sees Patroklos' body, Briseis drops to her knees and starts the lament.

This is the _geras_ of the dead, even when said dead slayed your husband and brothers.

The other women join her _threnos_. They mourn their own husbands and brothers and fathers, and the Greek warriors don't understand that it's not about Patroklos anymore.

In Akhilleus' eyes, Briseis sees the dead light of understanding.

She can't mourn for the man who killed her brothers. She can mourn for Patroklos' kindness, for love, and what might have been.

She leads the _threnos_ , and weeps. Akhilleus' eyes stay dry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Geras_ (γέρας), literally "gift, privilege, prerogative", is in Greek epic the share of honor (conveyed, in this case, through the ritual) that's owed to a person, especially an _aristos_. It's a fundamental part of the identity of characters in the Iliad: to be deprived of your _geras_ is to lose your social role, and this is enough to drive, for example, Achilles to his initial anger against Agamemnon.
> 
>  _Threnos_ (θρῆνος): here, the ritual lament over a dead body.
> 
> (self-promotion time: I have [a tumblr](http://stepantrofimovic.tumblr.com/). Come say hi.)


End file.
